Ipoh Curry Daan Daan Noodles It has been a while since we had found out about this; whilst there has been quite number of stalls that had moved out of the BGAIN @ Lavender Foodcourt since a couple of months ago, it does seem that there is a new stall that had sprouted up there of the late. Located at the corner-most unit right beside the windows facing out towards Jalan Besar, the latest stall that had moved into the food court would be that of Vegan Natural Bakery. For those whom find this name particularly familiar, yes; this is actually the same establishment with the namesake in Johor Bahru, Malaysia — in fact, Vegan Natural Bakery does have two independently run locations in Johor Bahru with one being at Nusa Sentral and the other being in Skudai. Their very first outpost in Singapore differs from that of their Malaysian locations considering how they are just a food court stall here; that being said, their menu revolves around noodle and rice offerings — there are also items like the Plant-Based Charcoal Burger with fries set and the Golden Pillow with the latter coming with their very own housemade bread as well.
Being an establishment that hails from Malaysia and with particular focus on Malaysian cuisine, it is needless to say that it was items such as the Ipoh Curry Daan Daan Noodles, Penang Assam Laksa and the Melaka Chicken Rice Ball that really caught our attention whilst we were skimming through the menu during our visit there on a weekend afternoon. Amongst much contemplation, we went for the Ipoh Curry Daan Daan Noodles — the mention of Daan Daan Noodles here seems to be more in reference to the Chinese La Mian-esque sort of noodles that are being used for the dish, and definitely did not seem to be referencing any potential fusion element between Ipoh Curry Noodles and Daan Daan Noodles they some may be thinking about. Vegan Natural Bakery does not describe on the elements that come with the dish; that being said, one can expect vegetarian tofu fish cake, fried beancurd skin, beancurd puffs and long beans coming with the dish. Going straight for some of the noodles with the curry gravy, we already found ourselves in love with the springiness of the noodles — all of that with that incredibly flavourful curry that just hits the tastebuds being all rich and not too spicy for those whom are tolerable to moderate levels of spiciness overall. All the other elements are actually pretty god to have — the fried beancurd skin providing an element of crisp and remained to be so even after a good while of being soaked in all of that curry gravy; not particularly greasy, while the long beans delivered a crunch. The fried beancurd puffs absorbed all of the goodness of the curry gravy like a sponge, only to ooze out only when one takes a bite into it; the vegetarian fish tofu delivering a bouncy bite as well.
We had also managed to give the Melaka Chicken Rice Ball a go; this came with vegetarian roast(?) chicken and some fried beancurd skin at the bottom. The chicken rice balls were the standout for us when it came to this item; these certainly carried a slight gingery note with flavours almost akin to glutinous rice that also replicated the notes of the typical plate of chicken rice quite closely. We also liked the fact that the chicken rice balls were well-packed; the rice balls being sticky enough to still hold its structural intregrity as we chewed into it, and paired well with the chili which came with a bright, spicy note from fresh chili padi without the zing of calamansi. Compressed beancurd skin has been used in the making of the chicken; the one here does seem a little more loosely packed than some that we had come across but also comes with crisp layer over that provided a contrast of textures. We were also surprised with the texture of the blanched vegetable leaves that it came with; this came amazingly fresh and naturally sweet — all that with a soft crunch. Prices of the individually-sized main dishes at Vegan Natural Bakery are priced rather reasonably — the noodle dishes and rice dishes being of the range of $5.90 to $7.90, though some might note that the portions of food may be on the smaller side as well. Still, we are pretty much impressed with the items that we had went for during our visit — Vegan Natural Bakery definitely does their Malaysian-style dishes particularly well — we are looking forward to be back to give their other dishes such as the Golden Pillow a go some time soon!
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